Dovel's Paul Leslie to retire after 8-year run and exponential growth
By
Nick Wakeman
Dovel's executive chairman Paul Leslie will retire next month after eight years and a run that saw the company grow from 50 employees to 2,200.
It looks like Paul Leslie is calling it a career at Dovel Technologies as the company on Monday announced his pending retirement as executive chairman, effective in March.
Leslie has been with the company for more than eight years with most of that time as CEO. He passed the CEO role to Damon Griggs in October 2019 and continued to serve as executive chairman.
The company, owned by Macquarie Capital, announced former ICF Chairman and CEO Sudhakar Kesavan as Leslie's successor.
Leslie has had quite the run at Dovel, taking it from a small business into the middle tier with growth rates some years of 60 percent. The employee count grew from 50 to 2,200. Dovel being acquired by Macquarie in early 2019 infused some capital into the company allowing it to acquire Ace Info Solutions in September 2019.
After that deal closed, the CEO role was transitioned to Griggs the following month. Though Leslie and Griggs described it to Washington Technology as a several month process. Griggs was previously president and chief operating officer.
“It has been an honor to have led Dovel through its entrepreneurial growth stage. I will forever be grateful to the management team and all our wonderful employees for their dedication to our customers’ success and their enduring support of our growth strategy,” Leslie said in a company release.
He’ll continue to serve as an adviser to the company. Griggs called Leslie a mentor.
“The transformative success he created is the foundation that propels Dovel as we continue to support missions that truly make a difference in the world,” Griggs said. “At the same time, I am excited to welcome Sudhakar to Dovel. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience leading and scaling a mission-driven business and I look forward to the ideas and value he will add to our team.”
Kesavan led ICF through an initial public offering, expansion of operations globally and more than 20 acquisitions. He retired from ICF at the end of 2020.
“I am impressed with the quality of the management team at Dovel as well as their ambition,” said Kesavan. “I look forward to working with them to support their vision to scale the business and deliver solutions that have a positive impact across the federal government.”